Built by the now insolvent CLAN Ltd. as a cheap attack craft aginst larger targets, the amphisbaena's technology is terribly outdated, but the ship is still in use by pirates and other derelict subjects, who can't afford something better. An enthusiast can make use of its impressive missile capacity for a vessel of it's size, by putting a little money and effort into this - but there are probably still better alternatives.

EDIT: Oh man, I totally wanted to check first. I just made a wiki search and there was nothing found on amphisbaena, the two headed snake out of greek mythology. Wich is a rather fitting name with it's two missile launching pads, I think...

Last edited by Rorschachhamster on Fri Nov 09, 2012 7:57 am, edited 3 times in total.

Rorschachhamster – I have only had the chance to have a quick look over this however please note the following feedback which will hopefully help.

I noticed that in your shipdata.plist you include a non-standard role i.e. ace_ship2 escort. i.e.

Code:

roles = "hunter pirate ace_ship2 escort";

If you use a non-standard role you will need to spawn the ship with script in order to get it to appear in game. You can check for errors like this by using the debug console an extract of which I have included below.

Code:

11:55:15.602 [shipData.merge.failed]: ***** ERROR: one or more shipdata.plist entries have like_ship references that cannot be resolved: amphisbaena-npc

A second point is that you have used a like_ship key for your npc versions however you have specified a pirate AI to be used in conjunction with all of the npc roles including a hunter and escort role. Perhaps one of the boffins can comment on if this will cause an issue with Oolite or whether Oolite will use the correct AI and ignore the pirate AI specified in the shipdata.plist. In any event you can remove the following code from the npc shipdata.plist and Oolite will select the correct AI for you

Code:

ai_type = "pirateAI.plist";

I also notice that you have an alpha channel in your texture file but you don’t appear to be using it. If this is the case you can remove the alpha channel to reduce the size of the texture file. I have done this and reduced the texture file from 1.43MB to 1.25MB. If you are using gimp this can be done by selecting layers/transparency/remove alpha channel.

Also if you make the background of the texture file plan black you will also be able to greatly reduce the size of the texture file. I have also quickly looked at this and reduced the size of the texture file to less than 0.5MB.

Please don't take any of the above as criticism it is simply intended to assist.

Having a pirateAI defined is no problem as it will be overridden with the correct one for its role. The defined AI wil only be used when added in the role of 'ace_ship2'. Personally I do like a ship having its own custom role. Even when not used in the script, it is easy for testing.

Thanks for your comments. I'm trying to learn here, so comments are more than welcome.

The ace_pilot2 is propably a relict of where I took the plist and I've taken it away. I'll look into ship scripts in the future, but right now... And I'll have to look at how the pirateAI.plist works with missile. Is there an AI that makes heavy uses of missiles? I'll look it up!

And graphicswise, I'll make sure to remove the alpha channel, and I will do the background in black the next time. I think, I'll make the background of the amphisbaena, too, but as it is important that the grey parts stay grey, I'll have to look at the UV mapping a little bit.

I'll do an update shortly, and I'll mind your advise with my new WIP...

_________________Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck.~ Disembodied

It turns out that instead of like_ship = "amphisbaena_player"; you still had like_ship = "copperhead-player"; in the shipdata.plist

This is still in the latest version, 1.02

_________________Most games have some sort of paddling-pool-and-water-wings beginning to ease you in: Oolite takes the rather more Darwinian approach of heaving you straight into the ocean, often with a brick or two in your pockets for luck.~ Disembodied